Historical Deja Vue

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9.

History, as well as everything else, repeats itself. It’s part and parcel with the renewal process. Think about it…When we speak of progress usually we mean industrialization or inventions which make us technologically advanced. Rarely do we interpret this to be human awareness or progress in human relations. I am always amazed at the public rhetoric when republicans and democrats speak about one another with heartless, cavalier statements about the other’s opinions or beliefs and never really consider what we’re teaching.

There’s an old saying which goes, “One thing we learn from history is that mankind learns nothing from history.” It holds true to this day. People are so nucleic and self-centered when it comes to prioritizing their environment that they can’t get being in control out of their heads. We legislate to make one group illegal, thinking we’re doing God’s will or believing we know what’s best for everyone, when if we look at history, we’d realize that God has had to live with sin for as long as mankind has been outside the Garden. He’s tolerated the evil men do without interference for eons—with the rare flood or brimstone consequence thrown in for good measure.

But it’s this character change I really want to target here. In the last 200 odd years we’ve eliminated slavery for the most part in the West, at least, brought about equality for “minorities” (strange how people of color are called “minorities” but make up 3/5 of the world’s population) and women, then educated ourselves in social justice language to the point of insanity. We perform soapbox speeches about tolerance and sensitivity all the while being intolerant of groups who oppose our POV. Until there is an eradication of sin, there will be no equality anywhere nor will we see poverty, racism and host of other problems go away. Mankind must change the core of his/her being for such progress to take place. Everything else is window dressing or band aids on a gaping wound.

Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. Ecclesiastes 1:10.

Strangely enough, most people wouldn’t think about history repeating itself. I mean, we see the world through our “modern” eyes, believing what we’ve invented somehow is original, but I doubt it. In fact, I wonder if the flood and a few other interventions by God weren’t expressly to limit man’s dominance of the earth in those times through machines similar to ours. If you look at what we’ve invented over the last 200+ years during the industrial revolution and following into the computer era, most of the stuff is polluting our planet faster than nature can renew it. I wouldn’t doubt either that somewhere in the mists of time the things we believe are “new” existed in some form.

All we have to do is look at birds to know someone or something already had the idea for flying. It certainly didn’t originate with humans. We make airplanes, rockets and gliders all to imitate what nature produced before we were a blip on history’s radar. In the course of history, I wouldn’t doubt, however, that some of our technology has existed somewhere in the past. There are the landing strip looking archeological finds on several continents which no one can explain; the drawings on the caves of space suited beings greeting humans; and a host of other unexplainable history that suggests past civilizations might have been more advanced than we thought them to be.

A tree is a biological machine synthesizing oxygen through the rays of the sun and utilizing carbon dioxide for its own growth. Humans benefit from this symbiotic relationship without ever thinking about it much. The earth is one big technologically advanced life machine which we only dream about duplicating; yet we somehow think that our advances in the area of computers or medicine are wondrous or special. We know the ancient Egyptians were far and away better at medicine than anyone could’ve imagined 50 years ago. There’s evidence in their records and mummies they performed delicate surgeries we have just begun to accomplish in the last 50 years.

Yet the arrogance of humanity continues be out of control. Solomon warns us this is not only futile but the essence of foolishness and outside of wisdom’s boundaries. Still we not only practice said arrogance, we ignorantly promote it through science, religion or cultural bias.

There is no remembrance of the men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. Ecclesiastes 1:11.

History, archeology and genealogy might be fascinating hobbies or careers for some, but the reality is our curiosity for the most part is merely that and nothing more. The only real stuff we get caught up in is that which affects our lives in the moment. Most people couldn’t care less about their own family history much less the grander scheme of things.

If our civilization dies out, those who follow will remember us for as long as there is evidence of our existence and people still alive to tell the tale. Our own memories are only as long as our life spans, therefore our legacy can only endure when we are remembered by being known. The only one at this stage in human history to retain a memory of those in the past is God. The rest of us may as well be non-existent as far as the modern world is concerned.

However, the people and accomplishments of today would be nowhere without the people and their struggles, failures and triumphs of yesteryear. When we look back at the ignorance of science with anything but admiration for their accomplishments against pretty big odds, we do a disservice to the advances of today. It is on the backs of those past accomplishments and failures that what we know today holds any value. Without a Henry Ford and others like him working on the internal combustion engine, we wouldn’t have the transportation norm of today.

No, people are too quick to forget, and even less likely to be grateful for, the perseverance and intelligence of those who came before; which just goes to prove Solomon’s point. C. S. Lewis postulated in one of his books that sin set us in a closed loop where we couldn’t progress past the fall until it was resolved. This meant, as he explained it (or I understood it), mankind would repeat the build up then fall sequence till the end of time. Until Jesus comes to stop the loop we are caught in an endless cycle because sin cannot create anything original.

2 Responses to “Historical Deja Vue”

How true those words are: “Sin cannot create anything original.” It usually takes something perfect and perverts it to something harmful. Thanks for the insightful post into the behaviour of us humans. 🙂